I'm shocked we're getting so many good first round matchups. It has indeed been quite strangely laid out but it's fascinating to speculate. What I love about New Japan is the booking style... I really would love Shibata to take it. But I think they will go with Omega who of course is not a bad choice at all.

Most interesting matches in Ist round for me are Omega Vs. Ishi and Shibata Vs. Suzuki. Also Honma shall be out due to injury so no idea who will replace him.

Since it's my first time, I'll try to predict the results.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2nd Round

Block A
Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs. Tanga Roa
Michael Elgin Vs. Toru Yano

Block B
Minoru Suzuki Vs. Juice Robinson
Kenny Omega Vs. Yoshi-Hashi

Only interested in Suzuki Vs. Robinson.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semifinals

Block A
Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs. Michael Elgin

Block B
Minoru Suzuki Vs. Kenny Omega

Interested in both matches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Final

Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs. Kenny Omega

And the winner is Hiroshi Tanahashi. The new leader of Bullet Club. That's a bold prediction, I know. But I think that Kenny Omega will be screwed by the new leader of Bullet Club thus turning him face.

Welp, there goes all of our predictions for Block A, with Tanahashi and Elgin both being eliminated in the first round, though this pretty well guarantees a Block B victory. EVIL is pretty much a given to be in the finals now, though with how good Kenny does comedy, I.. would not object to a Yano/Omega finals. I will admit that I enjoyed their G1 match far more than I probably should have, and they had some pretty entertaining interactions at the 45th Anniversary show (Nice to see a wrestling company that knows what an anniversary is. I'm looking at you and your "25th Anniversary of Wrestlemania during Wrestlemania 25", WWE). It SHOULDN'T happen, but selfish guilty pleasure, I would probably enjoy it if it did

Fale beating Elgin was a huge shock for me. I mean surely Evil is guaranteed in the final now. Fale being in the final would be pretty disappointing. And I like Evil but I don't think he's winning the Cup. Just what the hell are they gonna do with the B block...

Fale beating Elgin was probably the least shocking thing to happen last night to me. He's played spoiler to and beaten Tanahashi, Okada and Makabe in the first round for the last three years prior, so while it wasn't really expected, the fact that it actually happened isn't overly surprising. I'd say of the three upsets yesterday, it was the most likely to happen. Now it's mostly a question of if it'll be Fale or Yano that EVIL beats on his way to the finals.

Indeed. I can remember Fale always being booked strong in years prior but I thought the company had gone off of him. Elgin has been booked really strong. That match he had with Naito was one hell of a match. I really like both of them and they make for good big men. But Fale actually winning the Cup would be a massive upset. I'm not sure if that would've been the case with Elgin. It would've been surprising but not completely out of the realm of possibility for him to have beaten say Omega in the finals.

If Shibata wins the Cup it would be so amazing my God he would have to pull off so much.

Well, I'm 99% convinced Gedo saw my prediction list, took a look at it and said "Hey, let's make the opposite happen on all of these" because holy shit what is even happening.

I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to who is going to win now.

Lol. He saw my list as well. Only 2 out of my 8 predictions were right. Damn. Just a 0.25. Biggest surprise was Kenny Omega losing in the first round itself. It was the longest match though.

I think that Katsuyori Shibata could win this now. He could win the whole tournament and then challenge Okada. But I don't think that he will succeed in getting the big title. It could happen but I'm doubtful. I'm gonna try again.

While it was sort of shocking to see Tanahashi go down to Evil in the first round, I couldn't help but think that it's nice to see an established superstar like Tanahashi put over a much younger guy who's been making some strides the past 4 or 5 months. Tanahashi is 40 where as Evil, is what? About 29 or 30? Tanahashi has ruled the roost in New Japan for well over a decade now, he's not getting any younger and he's someone in New Japan that's risen to the level where he doesn't need to be champion to be a main event player. Tanahashi hasn't been "the guy" in New Japan for a little while in the sense that he hasn't been champ and that he's lost quite a bit. It sorta puts me in mind of John Cena in a good way, but it's shown, yet again, that having your marquee guys lose sometimes in hard fought, competitive matches doesn't negate their stardom and it's something I wish Vince McMahon could get a little more firmly behind.

Ishiii going over Kenny Omega was shocking and I'm not altogether sure it was the right move. I'm not hugely familiar with the regular goings on in New Japan, I try to keep up as best I can but I really only get to watch some of what goes down via YouTube, but it just seems to me that Omega is primed and ready to win the title. As of right now, with the possible exception of Okada and Tanahashi, he's probably New Japan's MVP and he's been the most talked about guy on their roster for months.

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